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Friday, April 15, 2011

Collecting Words

I love Meanderings and Muses.

I love our guest bloggers and I love our commenters, and I love you guys who come visit and never say a word -

And I love that each and every post gives me something - a little gift of something - be it a bit of new knowledge, a story that makes me laugh, or one that makes me cry. Or one that causes me to think. And I hope it does a little of that for many of you as well.

The last post was from Hank Phillippi Ryan about Paul Simon and it has resonated with many of us. She said, "“Hello, darkness, my old friend?” Yikes. Paul Simon got me. And didn’t let go. And the idea of lyrics as literature, lyrics as poetry, lyrics as just as gorgeous and complicated and compelling as any good novel—began to evolve in my head." (does this give us a hint as to why Hank is an Agatha, Anthony AND Macavity winner?).

Her piece collected lots of comments and it touched those of us who are lovers of words - which would be most of us who hang out here.

And, as coincidences tend to happen, it came on the heels of something Janet Rudolphmentioned in a comment a couple weeks ago. I wrote a piece here about Collecting Books . . . and other stuff. I included some pictures of some of my books. Janet, being a collector, noticed not necessarily the books, but the mottoware on the shelves along with the books. Seems she has several boxes of it herself. In her garage (I could cry. Suffice to say, I covet those 20 boxes, sight unseen). Janet collects " . . . embroideries, americana, and signs - anything you can read."

Whoa.

"anything you can read."

Is THAT what draws me to the mottoware?! WHY wasn't I able to figure that out on my own?! Thank you, Janet, for helping this feeble minded one figure out that one of the things she collects is "words."

If we love beautifully written song lyrics and amass large collections of CDs, we're collecting words.

If we're collectors of books, we're collecting words.

How many times have we heard ourselves say "I love words." Or, "I love that word." Often, I'm betting. And while we're reading, how many of us will smile and sigh at the manner in which a particular phrase has been written. It might set our emotions rolling towards fear or anger or it might tinkle gentle bells of happiness in our hearts.

Words.

Here's to 'em.

Now whenever I catch a glimpse of my mottoware, they'll have a whole new depth of meaning to me, thanks to the wiseness of our Janet. I, of course, read the phrases on each one as I buy or receive it as a gift. But then - I'm afraid, I guess I tend to take them for granted. So after Janet's comment I spent a little time picking up individual pieces and paying more attention to what they're saying to me. Here's one of my favorites -

Believe it or not, reading this little dish is what forced me to quit talking about joining an exercise class and actually getting off my lazy bum and doing it.

Sometimes the words will remind you that it's the deeds that really might be important. Words weren't helping me lose any weight - that's for sure.

And, like this piece tells me - "Lost Time is Never Found." So get on with it, already!

Words.

They're pretty amazing.

I love words that say exactly what they are - know what I mean?

Like "shimmer."

You read or say the word shimmer and you just see and feel and know what it is.

My favorites are "woids" -- simple ones that by force of luck -- have been "retaught" to me in different parts of the world. The soup in Virginia was the soap of North Dakota. Truly the best were offered at my eldest daughter's graduation party by our guest from Japan: "Oh! I bring you pleasants and many congladulations!"

Words are food for our souls. As you pointed out, words can make you happy, sad, angry, oh so many emotions. You mentioned lyrics as literature. One of my high school English teacher taught her class based on the songs of Neil Diamond. Words are a wonderful thing, just as you are my friend. Great post.

dammit - there was a terrific post here by Andi S. and now it's gone, and no - it's not the one "deleted by author." I need to see if she'll come back and leave it again and hope that Blogger doesn't eat it again. dern.

What I marvel at is the ability of humans to instantly connect a word with a feeling or a sight. And we have all these fabulous words just waiting in our brains to be paired - in a split second - with our experiences. Great post, Kaye!

Andi - I know! I have no idea what's going on with your comments and it's making me crazy! I saw them 'cause they popped into my email, but they didn't show up here. Very very weird. And it was a GREAT story!! waahh. Thanks for trying, sweetie!

I love your post, and the pottery, Kaye. I love titles, not words by themselves. It's titles that reach out and grab me. Two of my favorite book titles - Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bradbury) & a title that a couple authors have used, based on old maps - Here Be Dragons. I just love that. And, there was a play showing in D.C. when I was in grad school. I never forgot the title, "Arms Too Short to Box with God." All of those titles still call to me. I guess I am a librarian when I say I like titles. (grin)

Jen - you made me laugh out loud! Finding some good words at WordScraper sends me into a Happy Dance. for real. Even if no points are involved. (Let's try for discombulated - that is SUCH a great word!).

IT'S ALL RELATIVE

WOMEN'S SPACES WOMEN'S PLACES

CLOTHES LINES from 75 Western North Carolina Women Writers

CLOTHES LINES from 75 Western North Carolina Women Writers

I'm a lover of words and a lover of images.

The photos you see in the blog posts were mostly shot by me or by husband Donald. Or, they're old family photos - a lovely little benefit of being a part of families who recognized the beauty of preserving our history through photography.

If the photos are not ours, I have tried whenever possible to caption or link the photos to their source. This hasn't always been possible as there are a lot of uncredited images available through the internet.

My sincere thanks to the generosity of so many talented photographers who so graciously share their work for so many of us to enjoy, share and learn from.

IF you see a photo here that is a copyright infringement, please send me an email (barleykw @ appstate dot com) and I'll remove it immediately.

Books Read

Every year I promise myself I'm going to keep a log of books I'm reading. And I immediately forget. Then I remember again, but only after I've already read a few books, but can't be sure I'll remember them all and so - - can't bring myself to start the list. It's sort of like missing the first 30 minutes of a movie. I just can't watch it if I've missed the beginning. And being the anal ol' soul I am, I can't bring myself to start a list if I can't be sure it's going to be a complete one.So.I decided to keep a list during 2010 and found it to be a fun thing. Especially for a compulsive list-maker like myself.

FTC Disclosure Notice

FTC has a regulation which went into effect in December, 2009 which says, basically - "Amateur Bloggers to Disclose Freebies or Be Fined." Significantly fined. So. Since I happen to be an amateur blogger who sometimes receives free books, here's my required FTC Disclosure Notice: Dear FTC - Regarding review copies of books obtained for this blog. No other compensation is accepted beyond review copies of books - ever. When I do write a review, or opinion, the source of the book cited will be disclosed in the post in which the review/opinon appears. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me.